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Queen Christina

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:4,000.00 - 5,000.00 USD
Queen Christina

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Auction Date:2015 May 13 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
ALS in French, unsigned, one page both sides, 7.25 x 11.5, no date but circa 1688. Queen Christina’s draft for a letter to King Louis XIV. In part (translated): "Marquis Lavardin, the Extraordinary Ambassador from VM His Holiness just had a different behavior from his predecessors towards me, which filled me with joy and amazement, telling me that VM was willing to give me his friendship despite all the tricks and efforts of those who have the mission to push us against each other, for such a long time. He just persuaded me with the agreeable truth of the most obliging manner of the world, I am mad at my grief and my pride which prevented me from warning VM. On the opposite, I am not sorry to have left [your] generosity to take effect, which even pleased me so much, as I did not attract your honesty by any means, I did not try and justify myself and did not even complain, however you do me justice through your action which is so worthy of you and so worthy of me.” Affixed by one edge to the second page of a final draft copy of the letter. Intersecting folds and toning to edges, otherwise fine condition.

After abdicating the Swedish throne, Christina sought a welcoming place for her newfound Catholicism and moved to Rome to live in exile. She became a close friend of Pope Clement IX but clashed with his successors, most harshly with the conservative Pope Innocent XI, who she often publicly defied. In 1687, King Louis XIV appointed the Marquis de Lavardin as ambassador to Rome despite Pope Innocent’s decree that there would be no French ambassador until political demands were met. Lavardin, in open contempt of the pope’s authority, arrived with a small army and forcibly took up residence. Christina was thrilled to have a like-minded ally in Rome, and immediately befriended the French diplomat, leading Pope Innocent to excommunicate Lavardin and withdraw a pension from Christina. Responding to these measures, Christina said she had ‘accepted his benefits as a penance inflicted on me by the hand of God, and I thank him for having removed from me such a subject of shame and humiliation.’ With Lavardin as her sidekick, these battles with the pope would continue to amuse Christina for the rest of her life.